I recently applied for a continuing education and training program. It asked the usual questions about education and experience, and I answered several of them truthfully, having fun with only a couple.

(But surely they wouldn't believe that I once caddied for the Salvador Dali - the time seemed to go and on - or that I was featured in the 1993 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition - the world premier of the Mankini?)

The final request was for a thoughtful paragraph describing a significant challenge facing the church.

Wow!

"Significant Challenge."

"Thoughtful" (that can be challenge enough for me some days).

And...ONE paragraph!

I was being asked to limit my thoughtfulness to one paragraph. I considered employing pictures, pictographs, subliminal messaging (daed ton si lauP), using Latin ad absurdum, footnotes, endnotes, post it notes, and I even thought about using run-on sentence as I did to my advantage as an undergrad at Trent University, on the beautiful Ottonabee River, when I wrote a paper on the Taoist influences in Oscar Wilde - "The Importance of Being and Not Being Earnest" - as well as just ignoring the instructions.

But, as always, I refuse to rebel...and, typically, followed the instructions to the letter.

The following was my submission. (Yes, I realize that this goes beyond the single paragraph limit. Arrest me, I'm a giver!)

--------------

In our present age of Wikipedia and YouTube, authority is increasingly democratized and so the style and nature of church leadership must also change. This is particularly true of leadership within the pastoral charge or immediate church community. We come from a tradition of following the word, advice, and insight of the most educated and experienced person, who has actually been set apart for the duty of leading the congregation, but there is a current emphasis on the personal experiences and shared insights of the community coupled with a distrust of traditional authority that threatens to leave our leadership without anyone to follow, unless we begin to change how we lead within a community.

The past practices of advice and counsel are being replaced with companionship and deep listening, problem solving is being replaced by mediation and reconciliation, offering not a quick fix a way forward for all parties; people are not asking for answers as readily as they are asking for a place for their questions to be heard. We've talked about this within the church for decades and seen some change in small pockets, but the advent of new technologies has brought the need and tools for change to our doorsteps. As we venture forward to share the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, our leaders will need to rely more on intuition and improvisation than ever before; they will need to be open to the Holy Spirit in ways more crucial then ever before - this will require our leaders to trust themselves and God in very real ways. The handbook has not yet been written for how to deal with parish ministry today and I suspect that tomorrow's will never be written. Church leaders will not be able to simply rely on their personal authority or the authority of their education to lead effectively. They will need to be open to the Holy Spirit and learn to act contextually, faithfully, and genuinely as God defines our various ministries in community.

Therein lies a great challenge.

--------------

What would be your paragraph? (Feel free to employ the occasional run-on sentence yourself.)